Problems with residential property finance are acute for the more than twenty million Islamic residents of the United States. The Shariah (Islamic religious law) forbids interest-bearing debt as a financing tool. This has long placed Muslims who wish to purchase a home but who don't have the resources for an all-cash purchase at a disadvantage. Although lease-based financial instruments have been developed recently by Islamic financial institutions that comply with the Shariah, such instruments cannot be securitized by the financial institutions as would take place routinely in the case of home mortgages. The inability to recycle capital via securitization limits the amount of capital available for such financings and increases the financing cost for homeowners relative to mortgage finance.
As a reflection in the technical arts, computer support and control therefore has not evolved beyond the limits of previous Shariah financing.